Coatsy wrote:The only side effects are a sore back from huncing over the table a little too much.

That, and nothing but air in my wallet...

Thats funny and sad at the same time, because its true. Growing up it all hit at the same time, reading LOTR, the hobbit, Excalibur(movie), Castle books from the library and the Yellow Lego Castle. Hooked since then.

Another thought I had was that a large portion of the American population has their ancestors from Europe (like me) and want some link to our collective past. Plus its a great stress reliever.

In all honesty, I have no idea as to why I'm fascinated with castles or medieval life. Then again, why should the fact I'm not European have any relevance on this? I simply like what I like. The idea that Americans (or in my case, Canadian) are so fundamentally different in their mindset always seemed a bit strange to me. How many of you think most Europeans like castles simply because they are within driving distance? We simply have our own likes and dislikes based on personal experience. Nowadays, most of us get far more through books, TV, and computers than we ever do from 1st hand experience.

I'd like to know what attracted everyone to this castle theme. I'm sure we'll hear a lot of different reasons, so it's great to hear everyone's reason.

Well, I'm interested in history generally, so that's part of it. Also a factor is my romanticizing certain parts of the past... even when I knew a situation would have been absolutely terrible to live in, it's still cool to just think about the good parts (even if the good parts themselves are sometimes based more on fiction than fact). As far as why I'd romanticise and think about medieval Europe rather than, say, the Polynesian culture of the same period, there's probably lots of reasons. There's the fascination with fortifications that most young boys* have--whether snow forts, or tree cabins, or just making a fort out of blankets or a cardboard box in your bedroom. There's also the swords and armor, which I suppose appeals to the aggressive part of boys. Then there's the hero stuff, where you have to save the damsel in distress, fight the dragon to save the kingdom, etc. I suppose that when it comes to Lego, you can live out all the good parts of medieval times, build something that looks more like a real castle, etc.

*Just a note, I'm saying boys here, but I don't mean to exclude all girls. It's just that it's been my experience that, because of cultural conditioning and/or genetics, boys generally seem more interested in this stuff than girls.

That's an interesting question. I'm not sure why exactly I was first interested in medieval-ness and castles. For one thing I like history and plus my ancestors are mostly from Europe. I like architecture, battles, and cool weapons, so the age where they fit best is the medieval ages. But still I think there is just something about Castles, Knights and that era that fascinate me regardless of how miserable it really would have been to live then.

- The science fantasy and pure fantasy themes are some of my preferred reading fare. I also have a casual interest in history.

- Castles are imposing, impressive structures made basically by hand, the likes of which will never be created again. They have an aesthetic quality that no other structure quite captures.

- You can do so much with it. You can be realistic and make highly detailed historic scenes, or you can be fantastic with it (my approach, as I think it works better with Lego as the Lego models I like best tend to simply suggest or imply something rather than accurately create or depict it).

Plus it bears consideration that I may be a white American, but a few generations ago the people who eventually spawned me were Europeans. It's not like there's a total cultural disconnect.

My family background is Scottish/German (with a tad of French Canadian), I think it is a natural part of being interested in my family history to be interested in the middle ages. I am actually currently working on a custom lego faction which would utilise my family coat of arms. Like I said... I think it only makes sense.